BMD Northcliffe Escapes Carnage at the QLD Cup Final Round

The final round of the QLD Cup Boat Series was contested in wild seas at Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast on the weekend. The treacherous conditions caused grief with plenty of wipeouts. 

BMD Northcliffe emerged relatively unscathed with a 1^st placing for our Reserves and Under 23's and a second placing for our A Grade Men. 

These crews also featured in the results of the overall QLD Cup Premiership with our A Grade Men & Under 23's taking out their premierships and our Reserves named runners up in the series.

As if one day of battering wasn't enough, our crews came back for more punishment on Sunday for the Sizzler Oceans 38 'Best of the Best' Surf Boat Carnival. Dangerous conditions at Coolum forced organisers to relocate the event to Mooloolaba. The BMD Northcliffe Saints Open Men crew continued their good run of results with a comfortable win and in the Open Women our girls stepped up on the podium with BMD Northcliffe Novas securing 2nd.

ASRL QLD - Round 4

Close to 90 Surfboat crews hit Mooloolaba beach yesterday, from between far north Queensland and northern NSW, near flat surf and forceful cross winds. BMD Northcliffe secured 4 of their crews into the surf boat finals. 

In the Open Men's final, Drew's A Grade crew finished 2nd to the much bigger Currumbin crew who are all still water specialists at national level. Drew's women's crew finished 5th in their final. Our big win of the day was Matt's Reserve Grade, won all their races only to secure the worse end alley (7) in the final which was 2 boat lengths longer, crossed the line one boat in front  - huge row in flat conditions. Matt's Under 23 Crew finished 4th in their final, good result considering they also rowed 4 x tough Open Men's divisional races (missed that final by one point getting into that final) all up they completed 8 races all day, compared to everyone doing 4 - 5 races, in a half day. 

Another big thank you to Trent Keily who rowed as a fill in stroke seat in the A Grade then backed up to row in his regular stroke seat in Reserve, that's 9 hard flat water rows at 100%!

QLD Cyclones Victorious at the Interstate Championships

The QLD Cyclones put an end to NSW's four year dominance of the Interstate Championships yesterday, taking victory in the state team competition held at Homebush and Queenscliff. Not only did QLD take out the overall Championships, they also took out the Pool, Ocean and Handicap pointscores.

BMD Northcliffe Members Kristyl Smith, Liz Pluimers, Dev Lahey, Stefaan Demopoulos and QLD Cyclones Coach, Barry Newman, all contributed to the success with some impressive results.

In day 1 of competition at Homebush Aquatic Centre, Stefaan Demopoulos took out two individual events, U17 100m Manikan Tow with Fins and U17 200m Super Lifesaver. Dev Lahey won the Open 200m with Obstacles and the Open Line Throw.  

In day 2 of competition, the ocean specialists hit the beach with Liz Pluimers claiming victory in the Open Board and Kristyl Smith with victories in the Open Ski and Ironwoman events. Dev Lahey also backed up with a win in the Open Male Surf Race.  

For all the results from the Interstate Championships click here.

BMD Northcliffe Duo Claim KNG Crowns

BMD Northcliffe's Shannon Eckstein & Courtney Hancock took out their overall series KNG crowns at Noosa Last weekend. While both finished with only a 5th placing in the final round at Noosa, it was enough to secure Shannon's 6th KNG Ironman crown and Courtney's maiden Ironwoman Series crown.

Noosa Beach provided small clean waves which allowed for fast, close racing.  Despite torrential rain and thunder storms, thousands of brave spectators stuck around for the action packed racing.

In the Men's race, which was reduced from 5 races to 3 races due to lightning, BMD Northcliffe's Zane Holmes became the only male this season to notch up 2 race wins after also winning round 4 at Portsea. The win also gave him 3rd place overall for the series.

In the women's race, BMD Northcliffe's Elizabeth Pluimers claimed her 4th race victory of the season. In the overall in the series Elizabeth finished 2nd behind Courtney with club mate's Kristyl Smith finishing in 4th and Bonnie Hancock in 10th. The top 10 in both the mens and womens gain automatic qualification into the 2011/12 series.

For detailed results go to http://surfironmanseries.com/

PORTSEA DELIVERS FOR ROUND 4

Portsea didn't dissapoint when it came to providing some swell, action and carnage for Round 4 of the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Ironman Series on the weekend. The athletes were put to the test with big seas and chilly water tempretures. 

BMD Northcliffe's Zane Holmes proved he was back in form, winning 2 of the 3 races to take the overall win for the day. Clubmate, Shannon Eckstein, finished 3rd which was enough to claim back the black leaders singlet heading in to the final round.

In the women's race, series leader Elizabeth Pluimers copped the brunt of the ocean damaging two skis and a board in the two ironwoman races and in the process, relinquished her overall series lead to clubmate, Courtney Hancock. Courtney, who hasn't finished off the podium all series continued on with her consistency placing 2nd which was enough to secure the overall series lead.

There's no rest for the athletes who head to Noosa this weekend for the final round of the series. The eliminator format and expected flat conditions should provide some exciting, close, fast racing.

Liz Pluimers KNG Dominance Continues

Elizabeth Pluimers continues to dominate the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Ironwoman Series with another win at Coolum on the weekend adding to her victories in the first two rounds.

Elizabeth led for the majority of the 50 minute endurance ironwoman race out in front on her own proving she is the one to beat this season.  Fellow clubmate, Courtney Hancock,  continued on with her consistency for the season claiming a 2nd place to add to her two 3rd placings in the previous rounds. Kristyl Smith finished in 7th place with Harriet Brown rounding out the top 10.

In the Mens race it was Tugun's Hugh Dougherty that was too good for the rest of the field finishing ahead of Caine Eckstein. Older brother, Shannon placed 4th with Zane Holmes and Pierce Leonard in 8th & 9th respectively.

The next round heads to Portsea in Victoria on the 2nd January.

For Full results and series information click here.

Cliffe Girls Clean Sweep in Round 2

It was a clean sweep of the podium for BMD Northcliffe in Round 2 of the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Ironwoman Series at Bondi on Friday. 

In the eliminator format BMD Northcliffe made up half the field in the last race with 4 out of the 8 finalists, but it was Elizabeth Pluimers who was the eventual winner. Kristyl Smith returned to form claiming 2nd and the consistent Courtney Hancock in 3rd. Elizabeth sits on top of the progressive pointscore with two wins from two starts, 4 points clear of Courtney Hancock in 2nd place overall.

In the Men's race there were several shock exits in the earlier eliminator races leaving Zane Holmes the only BMD Northcliffe representative in the final race of 4 where he finished in 3rd place. Shannon Eckstein finished in 6th and Caine Eckstein in 10th. Shannon now drops back to 3rd place overall 3 points behind the lead.

For a Full list of results from Round 2 Click here.


Round 3 will be held at Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast on Sunday 19 December - back to the Enduro format.